Scorching the World

Sometimes I look at a person who seems not all there. I mean not dressed very well, slow-witted, and really not very smart at all. Then I compare them to their adult children, and they don't seem much better which makes me think think the kids didn't have a chance because they were raised by stupid people. Can kids thrive in a dumbed-down environment? On the other hand, sometimes the children of stupid people seem quite smart and it makes me wonder how they feel about having a parent who is rather dumb. Are they aware that their parent is kinda stupid? Do they love them anyway? Do they feel they were jipped when parents were handed out? Do they wonder how much better off they might have been with someone else raising them? Or can they love their dumb parents in spite of their lack of potatoes upstairs? After I look at people and ponder this for a while, I think about myself and my own children. Obviously all my children are much smarter than I am. All of them do things I neve...

We (I) have been working on preparing a special room for Ravenna because there aren't enough rooms in the house for her to have her own room. So we hired a friend to put a proper attic above our game room, and I spent a few days painting and preparing it for a teenager. Then R helped me carry things up, and chose how she would like it arranged. There isn't a closet, so we created a 'walk-in' closet by putting nails on the walls. Whatever works, right? I used paint we already had and didn't bother washing out the roller or brush between colors and therefore mixing brown with blue to get a swirly effect on the walls and floor, and blue with white for a cloudy effect on the ceiling. All in all, it turned out pretty cute, I think.

Ok, this isn't really my news, but since she isn't posting it, and since I do help occasionally, I'll put it here. To get a house ready for renting should not involve fixing it up nicer than it ever was when the real family lived in it. But normal life takes over, and after 14 years in the home, it was in need of some pretty major work. So the kids helped tear out a wall in the living room that had mold so that Grandpa could put insulation and new sheet rock. Same with the master bath wall. One bedroom was bright yellow and the other was deep purple and dark green. So now they are more neutral. The kitchen needed new cooktop, microwave, and fridge. The cabinets need painted. The master bath also needed new sink, vanity, floor, old ugly tile off the walls, and shower stall. And Trina decided to raise the roof in the shower stall: Next is to sand the floors and refinish them and do a little landscaping in front and a lot of landscape clean up in the back yard. There is a bit ...